Sc deals blow to mamata on panchayat poll

Jun 29, 2013 |

AGE CORRESPONDENTS

New Delhi/Kolkata

In a huge setback to the Mamata Banerjee government, the Supreme Court directed on Friday that West Bengal’s panchayat polls be conducted in five phases and rescheduled it to start from July 11.
A vacation bench of Justices A.K. Patnaik and Ranjan Gogoi said the polls will now be held on July 11, 15, 19, 22 and 25. It was earlier due to be held in three phases from July 2.
This is a huge victory for state election commissioner Mira Pande, who had been battling the Mamata government on the issue from April. The Supreme Court gave her everything she had sought, including a five-phase poll and adequate security forces, including Central forces, which the state was totally against.
Friday’s order directed the state government to provide around 35,000 security personnel for each phase, saying the rest should be provided by the Centre. The SEC had asked for 800 companies of Central forces: the SC granted 820 companies. But even more important, the Supreme Court re-established the primacy of the state election commission, and not of the state government, in matters related to panchayat and civic polls.

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